Tuesdays with Morrie - Bucket List

           My first thought when reading Tuesdays with Morrie book was that it was very saddening, and I had thought I wouldn't like it. Since I usually like to read books that don't cause sadness, but instead make me laugh and bring smiles. When we first read through the table of contents, I felt really nervous when I saw it had said "We say goodbye". It gave me a really bad omen and I didn't feel like it was going to be a nice book. However, were already at page 40 and I can honestly say that I'd love to keep reading. I'd like to go ahead because Morrie and Mitch's relationship makes me curious. How if they had something like that, couldn't we all? It seems nice that Morrie cares so much about Mitch, even possibly as a second son. 

          One thing that got me sad in the book, was when Mitch had said, "... and I swallowed because I knew, deep down, I was no longer the good, gift-bearing student he remembers. I only hoped that. for the next few hours, I could fool him." This made me sad because I don't want to know what will happen when Morrie finds out what has changed. Even when Mitch hadn't visited, and only did when he saw that Morrie was on TV. That made me a bit mad, as I would always keep in touch if I ever would have a professor that meant so much to me. That being said, I love how the book cuts back between the past and his present, I found that to be a unique writing style that I like more then other types.       

Bucket List:

• Learn Japanese
• Finish learning Italian
• Travel to Tokyo, Japan
• Travel to Progreso, Yucatan
• Be fluent in writing in Spanish
• Have 5 dogs
• Graduate from college with a bachelors degree
• Get a nice apartment in the city
• Travel to all 50 states
• Learn how to program/code
• Go bungee jumping
• Become good at cooking
• Have a pool
• Get good at photography
• Go sky diving
• Travel anywhere, but in first class
• Get good at baking 

3rd Quarter Reflection Blog

          Something I have accomplished that I am very proud of would be my butterfly from the butterfly project. I think it was in seventh grade when I had first heard of the butterfly project, and I was so excited, already thinking of how I would get to do it one day. Once we started, I was already making mental imagines on how it would look. The week we had to build the butterfly wasn't easy. The designs I had wanted proved to be a lot harder to build then I had expected, and I had a lot of trouble arming the butterfly itself. I had to use hot glue for the most of it... not fun. However overall I was really happy from the outcome and I loved seeing everyone else's butterflies. 

          I'd say the most challenging part of third quarter would be our argumentative essay. Seeing as I wasn't in school and actually in Mexico. It was really stressing to come back and realize how much homework that was assigned while I was away. The only thing I had managed to finish was the three main body paragraphs of the first draft. When I had come back, I tried to follow Edmodo as best as I could and in the end finished. I had spent a lot of time on the introduction and conclusion, I actually think out of all the paragraphs those two were the hardest. Of course, it won't be as great as everyone else's, but I think I tried my best and I was happy how it turned out. 

          The area I think I've made the biggest improvement in would be my vocabulary. I say this because as I write paragraphs I find that at some words, I stop and think, "What's another word to use?" For example, if I were to write "bad" I would stop and think that I could change that to a say, "terrible, or miserable. I think that because of this, my writing has improved quite a lot. I have to thank the vocabulary tests that help me. My vocabulary also helps me when I'm talking to other people. For example I was talking to a friend, and she had mentioned something about a person being very religious, so I said, "then she's a pious person right?". It made me happy to know I knew that.

Blog for 3/11/16 The Nazi Hunters

List three questions you have about what you read.

          If I was able to ask a question based off of the book The Nazi Hunters, I would ask "Why did Israel desperately want to bring Eichmann into their country in order to put him on trial?" I would ask this because they're many other countries who sooner or later would of done the same thing. While reading this I thought Germany would have arrested all those involved with the Holocaust, since it took place in their own country. I was assuming out of regret for what had happened. I didn't expect a country that hadn't been made at the time, to want him captured that badly.

          Another question I would ask would be, "How were they able to get help from survivors so quickly." I would ask this because I'd think any survivor would want to put the memories of the Holocaust behind them. However in the book these people had volunteered their help. I'm assuming many wanted revenge for all the pain he had caused them, their friends, and their families. I was very surprised when these people did everything they could to help, even going into the house where Eichmann lived at the time. I thought it was very brave of them and in all honesty I don't think I could of done the same.

*SPOILERS*

          The final question I would ask would be, "Why didn't they capture Eichmann on the first night that they had seen him walk home in the dark?" There was no one around him from what the book said, and there was only the light from his flash light surrounding him. In my opinion it would have been very easy for the team to capture him then and there, instead of hiding and watching him coming home for three straight days. Even they had said so, however they waited and I wonder why they would wait that long. Maybe it was because they thought if they failed he would flee again?

Blog for 3/7/16 The Nazi Hunters

Predict what will happen next.
Quote a passage & respond to it. How did it make you feel?
Why did you choose this to read?

          In the book The Nazi Hunters it explains how a team of spies and survivors captured the worlds most notorious Nazi, Adolf Eichmann. so far in the book, they've had many clues and were about to catch him many times. However each time he always got away and the trail had gotten cold every time. Currently they are very close to capturing him again, but like the other times I think Eichmann will escape. I can predict this because in the book he's described as clever, so I think he would be able to tell what is happening around him. The team had been investigating Eichmann, and even pretended one of their men was a person looking to buy a house for his family. The man had a brief case, which held a camera inside of it. As to how they were able to achieve pictures of Eichmann close up. This to me would be very fishy, if a man was to be holding a brief case in front of him instead of holding it in his hand next to it. Which is why I think Eichmann will realize he's being investigated, and flee with his family once again.

          There's a quote that isn't necessarily inside the book, but its on one of the beginning pages. The quote is said by Adolf Eichmann, and it states, "I sat at my desk and did my work. It was my job to catch our Jewish enemies like fish in a net and transport them to their final destination." Many thoughts run through my head every time I skim past this quote. How Hitler was able to convince so many people that the Jews were bad and how Eichmann didn't even question it. That Eichmann knew he was sending millions do their deaths and didn't care. It makes me feel sick thinking about it. A man that killed so many, and on a regular basis, had acted normal. The quote also makes me think of how Germany must have been so crushed after WWI, and how the Germans were able to put their trust into a horrible man so easily.

          The main reason I chose to read this book was that I'm really intrigued with the Holocaust. I like to read survivor stories, like The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The Boy on the Wooden Box or Night and try to understand what it was they were all going through. It makes me feel that I need to understand how these people lived their lives, so I can see the good side and the bad side of the world. Another reason I chose to read this book is because I've heard of Adolf Eichmann, and the horrors that he had done during the Holocaust. Since I heard he went into hiding, I assumed he was never found. However when I saw the book standing on Mrs. Larson's desk, and read the cover, saying how he was captured, I was immediately intrigued and went to go check it out. Currently I'm really liking this book, and every time I read more, it makes me feel like I'm in an episode of Criminal Minds.

Life is Beautiful

          There are many connections that can be made between Life is Beautiful and Night by Elie Wiesel. One connection can be that obviously, both involved the Holocaust. Now, we all know that of course both these works have the Holocaust, but its more specifically how they're described that's different. Elie had faced the more brutal side of the Holocaust. While Guido, determined to keep his son away from the horrors of the Holocaust, says its all a game and tries to keep the humor for his kid throughout the movie. Another connection in between the movie and the book, was that both get their families separated. Again, Night showing us the more brutal side of the Holocaust, how Elie says that after his mother and sister went to the right, he never saw them again. In Life is Beautiful Guido and his wife do get separated, but he does everything in his power to show her that himself and their son are still alive and were well. For example when they snuck into the radio room and sent her a message while she was picking out clothes as her job. Or when he put on the song they had seen being preformed in an opera before the concentration camps.

          In Life is Beautiful and Night by Elie Wiesel, there are also many scenes that are different and similar. A similarity is when the families, like mentioned earlier, are separated. In Night the family arrives at Birkenau and immediately guards are shouting at them to form lines. As Elie stated, "An SS came toward us wielding a club. He commanded; "Men to the left! Women to the right!'" That was the last moment Elie said he saw his mother and little sister, as they were forced right and Elie and his father were forced left. Then in the movie, the family arrives in the camp and the women all get out one side of the train, and men the other. Guido however, in a last attempt to see Dora (his wife) again, jumps on the train onto the other side as they look at each other as a final goodbye. The movie and the book are similar since both families are separated in similar fashion, how women were sent in one direction and men in the other.

          The mood in these two works are very different. In Night Elie tells what he's feeling in his perspective. How he had seen so many dying around him, being moved from camp to camp. In the book he had said, "I too had become a different person. The student of Talmud, the child I was, had been consumed by the flames." This shows just how heavy the mood was during the whole duration of the book. While inside of the movie, Guido is trying to create a happy mood for his kid, since the child thinks the camp is a giant game. Guido like any good father, tries to hide all the horrors behind the camp and does anything to make his child smile. As to show how the mood in the movie was a lot lighter than Night as there was also a lot of comedy coming from Guido.

          Both the movie and the book have very different points of views. For example, Elie and Guido are both Jewish, however Elie is the only one that practices the religion. I think that, that specific part is why the book was so suspenseful. How we as readers were able to see his transformation from the kid that loved to study and practice his religion, to a kid who questioned and disliked God. Its that much more suspenseful seeing as his religion used to be the most important thing in his life, so to be taken away so quickly meant that what he went through changed him probably faster than anything else in his life. In the movie however, Guido had never practiced the religion and continues his daily life. I think it had a bit more humor because of this, since loosing your faith is something huge. Guido still managed to make everyone laugh with his cheerful nature, which I think was another main reason as to why the movie was more humorous.

*SPOILERS*

          One way I thought life was shown as beautiful throughout the film was Dora and Guido's love. Since we are all different, and we all have emotions its beautiful that people are lucky enough to enjoy having such a strong love like Dora and Guido had. For example how Guido risked his life, as his child's in order to send Dora a message on how he loved her and wanted to let her know they were both doing fine. Another way I thought life was shown as beautiful throughout the film was Guido's love to his kid. Every parent loves their kid, but Guido knew what he was getting into the moment he put his child into the box near the end of the movie. Guido was trying to hide his kid so that he could go find Dora, and even when he got caught, as soon as he started walking in front of the box, he was marching funny in order to try and cheer up his son. Even in his final moments, his main priority was to keep his soon happy, as the last memory the boy would ever have of him. I think that's how life is shown as beautiful because parents have the natural instinct to keep their kids safe and happy, and I think Guido did a wonderful job keeping his child safe before he was shot.

Night Blog 2

Focus Question: How do Elie's experiences during the Holocaust change him as a person?

          In Night Elie's beliefs in God are very strong before the Holocaust. At the beginning of the story he says, "Why did I pray? Strange question. Why did I live? Why did I breathe?" This shows how he was so into his religion, that it was like second nature to him. He is saying how you breathe unconsciously, like there's something telling you to breathe all the time, and for him it was the same, however with his religion and praying as well. However, as he is taken to each of the concentration camps, his faith in God starts to become less and less, until to him, God is non existent. In the book he says, "I too had become a different person. The student of Talmud, the child I was, had been consumed by the flames. He meant that by seeing all the horrors around him, the harsh labor, the kids and adults being put into the crematories, all of it had made him doubt that there was no god.

        Also in Night Elie's values of family become, stronger. For example in the story it says, "And I started to hit him harder and harder. At last, my father half opened his eyes. They were glassy. He was breathing faintly." This shows how throughout his experiences leading him to that moment, they were always together. However when he thought his father was going to die, like all children they get scared. As to the reason why he hit his father so hard until he woke up, so they wouldn't have to separated. Since his father was Elie's sole reason for continuing to live.

*Spoilers*

        After all of these experiences and changes Elie goes through, he ends up mentally and physically dead. At the end of the book he says, "From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me." This shows how after everything he had been through, there was no way he would ever be the same. How seeing so many die, how knowing his father had died, but not even saying goodbye, knowing that his mother and litter sister had also died with out him saying goodbye must had crushed him in a way I hopefully will never know.

         

Night Blog

             In the book Night Elie, the narrator's point of view on god changes as he is transferred from camp to camp. In his earlier days, Elie was very religious. In the memoir he had stated, "I continued to devote myself to my studies, Talmud during the day and Kabbalah at night." This represents how he was so devoted that he spent both night and day studying the religion. However once Elie was transferred from camp to camp, being dehumanized made a very large hole in him. While all the other men in the camp think God's challenging them, Elie just gets mad at God for not helping them escape living hell. As in the later chapters, Elie had said, "I too had become a different person. The student of Talmud, the child I was, had been consumed by the flames." This meant that he didn't believe in God anymore. With all the horrid events that surrounded him day and night he stopped believing that God would help them as when ever they looked to him for guidance, nothing ever happened.

             One emotion Elie, had felt would be fear. He, as most of the other men of the camps all felt fear. The fear of having your loved one killed, the fear of being burned in the fires, there was always fear around them, one way or another. As when Elie's father had been chosen to stay back for the second selection, Elie had said, "I was afraid of finding myself alone that evening. How good it would be to die right here!" I would say that Elie's greatest fear would be losing his father. As he's the only family he has left, after being separated from him mom and sister.

             Another emotion Elie had felt would be anger. This anger was not directed at the SS guards, well some of it was, but who it was directed at was God. As explained earlier, Elie was very angry at the fact that God didn't help these people. How he didn't stop children being thrown into the fires. Or how he didn't stop that young boy from dying during those hangings. Elie is starting to reject that God is even there. For example when the men were praying to God as the new year approached and Elie has thought, "My eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God..." With everything happening around him, nothing would ever be the same. His total faith in God and been destroyed. For a person to be so religious, and then turn to say he lived in a world without God, it truly shows how horrid that time period was. Not just for Elie, but for all of the Jewish people in concentration camps.